Connor Reck, 2011 graduate of Santa Ynez High School, just finished his post-college trip to Europe.
It wasn’t a vacation, exactly: Reck graduated this year from Harvard University with a degree in economics. Then he crossed the pond with 60 select track athletes from Harvard and Yale to face off against Oxford and Cambridge in a competition that dates back to 1899.
Still, it was relaxing in many ways: “We got pretty lucky,” Reck said. “We didn’t have any rain when we were there. It was great weather. Everything was easy since the teams had set up our transportation. Most of our meals were set up so we didn’t have to worry about planning anything. We were just along for the ride.”
The delegation ran a series of meets against Oxford/Cambridge, first at the University of Limerick in Ireland (where Reck won the 1500), then Birmingham, Cambridge, and Oxford. The track meets are punctuated by banquets and sightseeing.
“We’re there to compete,” he reaffirmed. Then, qualifying: “But we’re there to have a good time as well.”
The competition is weighted with history. For instance, Reck took third in the 800 at Oxford, where he had the honor of racing on the Iffley Road track.
It’s an important venue: the birthplace, in 1954, of the 4-minute mile. Sir Roger Bannister, then a 25-year-old medical student, was back on the track of Oxford, his alma mater, for an annual race put on by the Amateur Athletic Association.
Paced by his friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway, Bannister broke away in the last 200 yards to kick for the finish. In his own words, from The Four-Minute Mile:
“I felt that the moment of a lifetime had come. There was no pain, only a great unity of movement and aim. The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist. The only reality was the next two hundred yards of track under my feet. The tape meant finality—extinction perhaps.”
And then, as his time was announced over the PA system, the crowd roared so loudly that “three minutes and … ” was all that could be heard. Bannister retired from racing the year after to focus on medicine.
Now, the track at Iffley Road is named for Sir Bannister. The Oxford Campus, as Reck tells it, is layered with history like that: a place from another time.
“Everything at Oxford and Cambridge, it’s crazy how old it is,” he said. “You aren’t allowed to walk on the lawns there unless you have a Ph.D.”
The visiting Ivy Leaguers played croquet with their hosts; they went out on the river and punted.
Wait, what?
It’s like what gondoliers in Venice do, according to Reck: “Somebody stands at the back of the boat and you have a long pole,” he said.
For Reck, competing alongside the best runners from Yale was an experience marked by fraternity, not rivalry. “There’s no animosity between the teams,” he said. Most of the Yale runners, he pointed out, were courted by Harvard as well.
“It was a lot of fun getting to know the guys on the Yale team a bit, training together,” he said.
For Harvard and Yale, perhaps, the competition is more of an exhibition. This year extends their winning streak to the last three meets, and The Harvard Crimson reports the men’s team has won 25 out of the 27 matchups since 1965.
Back in 1899, however, it was a big deal. The first Harvard-Yale delegation, as reported by The Boston Globe, left from New York Harbor for England on a steamer and were “wildly cheered.” The London Times, taking measure of the visiting Americans, was impressed: “Their gentlemanly demeanor, good looks, and high spirits have been the subject of admiring comment. They have never been noisy nor indulged in horse play.”
Jason Saretsky, who coached Reck at Harvard, spoke to the Sun more than a century after that London Times article. His appraisal wasn’t so different from what the Times wrote of Reck’s antecedents.
“He’s a tremendously hard worker,” Saretsky said. “He’s embodied what being a Harvard student athlete is all about.” On that trip to Europe, he said, Reck saw the culmination of the work he’s been doing since high school.
It was at Santa Ynez High School, after all, that Reck started running. “It ended up being my main thing and my main talent,” he said. “Something that I could compete in at the college level.”
There, guided by coach Brian Wallace, he pushed himself so hard that he would vomit after races.
“He kept giving me better challenges, and I responded well to that,” Reck said. “I liked pushing myself as hard I could, and I felt accomplished when I threw up, like I couldn’t do any more.”
Contact staff writer Sean McNulty at smcnulty@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 9-16, 2015.
